


I Wanna Feel a Little Closer

by bubblepulp



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: AU, Aged Up, Boss/Employee Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-25
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-15 23:29:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,355
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29691603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bubblepulp/pseuds/bubblepulp
Summary: No one warned Suga that the CEO of KBirds Inc looked like he was straight out high school, so it's understandable and even inevitable that he mistook the young disheveled man in the waiting room as a fellow applicant for a job. Anyone with a conscience would have helped him straighten out his appearance and given him unsolicited advice! Well okay, maybe the first but not the second.AKA Suga still manages to get the job despite lecturing the CEO of the company and much more than he bargained for.
Relationships: Azumane Asahi/Nishinoya Yuu, Kageyama Tobio/Sugawara Koushi, Michimiya Yui/Sawamura Daichi, Shimizu Kiyoko/Tanaka Ryuunosuke
Comments: 12
Kudos: 47





	I Wanna Feel a Little Closer

“It couldn’t have been that bad.” Asahi said, for the third time in as many minutes, watching with the fear he normally only reserved for Nishinoya around fireworks and/or energy drinks as Suga poured himself another shot. Normally, Suga might have found his tall gentle roommate’s presence comforting, but at the moment, his normal platitudes weren’t cutting it. 

“Asashiiiii.” Suga half-sobbed and half-shouted, the volume of his voice thankfully muffled by the crook of his arm as he tried to bury his face into it. After only a few shots his face was already beet red, though it could have also been all his yelling. “It was so bad! I lectured the owner of the company! Kiyoko is going to kill me!”

The last part of which was probably the worst of it, honestly. It wasn’t as if Suga was ever going to run into start up tech prodigy Tobio Kageyama ever again. Which, if he was going to be uncharitable to Kiyoko, something he would only do in the safety of his own thoughts, she should have told him who exactly was going to be interviewing him! But no one, not even the usual diligent and detail oriented Kiyoko, had warned him just how young the CEO was. Suga had incorrectly assumed that his grandfather, the founder of the company, was still running it considering how prominently displayed he had been on the website.

Just thinking about how he had mistaken the CEO of KBirds Inc as another potential candidate and had fallen into the bad habit of offering unsolicited advice, even giving Kageyama his own tie so he’d look more ‘professional’, was so mortifying that the only thing that could cure him was more alcohol or amnesia caused by blunt force trauma. While the very memory of his stilted interview was enough to make him want to crawl into bed and never come out, it wasn’t the worst of it. 

A more pressing concern was what Kiyoko would do to him once she heard all of this. She had been the one who had vouched for him after all, and had encouraged him to apply for the position of HR within the company because he’d be ‘perfect’ for it. In all the years that Suga had known Kiyoko, he had never seen her angry, really angry. Even after the whole ‘I won’t marry you’ debacle, Kiyoko had always maintained near perfect composure. He could have hoped that same calm disposition would work in his favor in this blunder, but Suga knew how hard Kiyoko had worked to become the top project manager at KBirds Inc. How meticulously she cultivated and maintained her reputation. The only other person she had personally vouched for in all the years she’d been at the company had been for Hitoka-chan, and even to Suga’s untrained eye, he could see that she was a talented graphic designer. 

Unlike Suga who was unemployed, had no real skills that set him apart from the masses of other jobless candidates who had been vying for this lucrative position, and perhaps most distressingly of all, was currently single. According to Asahi and Daichi, was experiencing his ‘mid-life crisis’ early. Which was probably a fair assessment, even though he wanted to protest it vehemently, and at the top of his lungs.

He couldn’t pinpoint exactly what had made him quit the teaching job he had previously loved, break up with the person he had casually been seeing for the past year, and decide on a whim to move back to his hometown.

When he had tried to explain it to anyone, he could only say the vaguest of vague directionless statements, like needing a change or feeling homesickness. But it was a lot more nebulous than that. Small little inconsequential things that had started piling up in the unseen corners of his life until when he finally did turn to look at them, they were mountains casting long shadows, engulfing his happiness. He didn’t know how long he had been feeling like he was slowly going crazy, that every day was running together in a long blur, to the point where it felt like he had to change something or disappear altogether. But as soon as he had cut out one part of his life he disliked, he hadn’t been able to stop himself. First it was the job that made him miserable thanks to a management and curriculum change that left him feeling powerless. Next was the partner he couldn’t commit to, and while they were fine, Suga could admit to himself that any attraction had fizzled out a long time ago and they were just going through the motions because it was comfortable for them. Then there were friends who only seemed to come around when they needed something but were conveniently busy when Suga was in need of some light venting or someone to hang out with. He had only stopped when his former life had surrounded him like ashes, only a handful of friends left untouched by the wreckage. 

...In hindsight, he may have gone a bit overboard.

He was just lucky that Asahi had a spare bedroom and that Kiyoko had mentioned there was a job opening at her work or else he would have had to move back in with his parents and deal with their overbearing but well meaning concern. Just the thought was enough to make him pour himself another shot and down it quickly, shuddering at the burn of alcohol or at the bullet he had neatly dodged.

If only he hadn’t made a complete fool of himself! Everything might have fallen nicely into place, as if the universe was there to validate Suga hadn’t made one huge mistake after another. 

While it was tempting to wallow in self-pity, Suga was only going to allow himself one night of drinking and feeling sorry for himself. Luckily he had some savings to tide him over for a few months before he was going to be in dire straits, and he had always performed decently under pressure. Tomorrow, he would crack down and go back to the soul-sucking act of throwing his resume out into the void, praying for something close to his last salary. 

With his plan set, Suga poured himself another shot, downing it before Asahi could offer him more nervous words of comfort.

Asahi looked about two seconds away from trying to gently steal the bottle back from him when Suga’s phone rang, startling him out of his stupor. Seeing Kiyoko’s name flash across the screen, he felt his stomach drop through the soles of his feet so quickly it was nauseating. He was tempted to just let it go straight to voicemail and deal with it in the morning, but really, the least he could do was face Kiyoko’s rage or disappointment and make his apologies now while he had liquid courage to help keep the shame at bay.

“Kiyoko!” He answered, hoping he sounded far more sober than he felt, but if the way that Asahi was quickly grabbed the bottle and went to dump it down the sink was any indication, he wasn’t doing a good job. “I’m so sorry for today!”

There was a curious pause, before Kiyoko spoke. “Why are you apologizing? I was calling to congratulate you and let you know that you should be receiving a job offer by the end of day.” 

It was difficult to know who was more confused in this conversation. Though Kiyoko sounded as poised and professional as always, Suga’s mind was reeling. Did Tanaka put her up to this? While Tanaka was a good guy, if a bit quick to fight or shout, he wasn’t above a few weird pranks. Had he somehow managed to wear down Kiyoko to the point that she would help him enact such a cruel joke?

“Suga? Are you still there?”

“Y-Yes.” Suga paused, cleared his throat, and gestured for Asahi to get him a glass of water on the off chance he really was already so drunk he was hearing her wrong. “I got the job?” He repeated, a bit dumbly. He was never going to tease Tanaka again about his grades and study habits because clearly Suga was somehow now at his same level.

“Yes.” Though the response was brief, there was still warmth to it, and Suga didn’t need to see Kiyoko to know she was smiling one of her small rare smiles. “I’m not sure how much you’ve researched the company, but Kageyama-kun is notoriously difficult to get along with and you were at ease with him right away.”

 _Because I thought he was a clueless kid straight out of school_ , Suga thought, a bit hysterically, but he didn’t know how to correct her. 

“Did… Did he tell you what happened?” Suga tried again, just to make sure that he wasn’t hallucinating. Asahi, ever the angel, had set down a glass of water in front of him that he immediately started chugging in an effort to sober up and see if this conversation made sense even then.

“Yes.” This time, the word was accompanied by a small laugh, as if she had found the whole debacle heart-warming instead of the career ending stunt it actually was. “I did warn you he was a little unorthodox, so I’m glad you decided to approach him in kind.” Well, Suga supposed, that was one way to look at it. 

“Right…”

“We’d appreciate an answer by Monday, but if you need more time, let me know. Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me if you have any questions. Congratulations again.” Something about the normalcy of this exchange kicked Suga into repeating back the expected response back in kind, even though he still couldn’t believe this conversation was real. 

As soon as he hung up with Kiyoko, he went to check his email for that offer letter. If there wasn’t one, he was going to call Tanaka and chew him out twofold: first for the prank and second for corrupting Kiyoko, who he had thought had always been stalwart and trustworthy. Wasn’t he already suffering enough without Tanaka picking on him as well?

“So… You got the job? That’s good right?” Asahi prompted, looking hopeful on Suga’s behalf, which was part of the reason why Suga was suspicious. Asashi should be consoling him about the prank or apologizing because he’d known about it because Nishinoya and Tanaka had a hivemind and Nishinoya couldn’t keep a secret from Asahi even if he wanted to.

“This has to be a prank. Tanaka put Kiyoko up to this-” Suga started vehemently, as he prodded and poked angrily at his phone, still suspicious right up until he saw an email from Kiyoko’s work email with the subject line ‘offer letter’. His mind went curiously blank, his words slowing, as he clicked on it. It looked legitimate, right down to the letterhead, but that didn’t really mean anything. Kiyoko worked there. Typing up a letter and sending it to Suga was child’s play. If this was a prank, there had to be something in there to make it non-binding. If Suga knew Tanaka, it’d probably be some lyrics to an annoying pop song in all caps but- no… nothing was out of place. It was mind numbingly boring.

He put his phone down and looked at Asahi seriously, the taller man instantly straightening up like a deer in headlights or a rabbit before a hawk. 

“Asahi.”

“Yes?”

“You know you’re obligated to tell me if this is a prank. If you don’t, I’ll tell Daichi.” Even though it wasn’t smart to go for the big guns first, it had the intended effect of making Asahi visibly shrink upon himself. Suga would have felt bad if Asahi had been able to control his boyfriend and by proxy, his boyfriend’s best friend.

“Kiyoko wouldn’t joke like this! Let me see the letter.” It was only because Suga’s limbs were no longer obeying him that he let Asahi take his phone and scroll through it, his brows furrowing. “It looks like a real offer to me, and I promise if I knew it was a prank, I would tell you.”

It was only after five straight seconds of Asahi’s big brown doe eyes that Suga started to relax, his mood shifting from depressed to incredulous in about the same amount of time.

“I can’t believe I got the job! Even after all that…”

“Guess it’s a good thing we know they already like your personality.” Asahi said dubiously, yelping when Suga smacked him on the arm. “What?! Sooner or later they would have known how bossy and pushy you can get- hey!”

Even if Suga smacked him again because he didn’t like what he was saying, it wasn’t like Asahi was wrong, exactly. While he might look sweet and kind at first, he’d been in competitive sports for too long for that to be the only facet of his personality. In some things, he could be incredibly patient. In others, he’d get frustrated so quickly it was like he didn’t know the word patience at all. He liked to tell people what to do, which was probably part of why he made such a good teacher, but he also rarely wanted to be in charge. Though he had fought against it for most of his life, he now could say he was fine being more of a supporting role than some larger than life leader that had everyone following them. That sort of thing was best left to Daichi, who had the unwavering sense of responsibility and determination for it. 

He didn’t let those thoughts linger, instead getting up to pull out another bottle of alcohol, ignoring Asahi’s groan.

“You want to see pushy? Down three more shots for pouring a perfectly good bottle of alcohol down the drain!”

\---

For better or for worse, the first few weeks of Suga’s employment had him too busy to even see the CEO, much less apologize to him profusely for what happened. Even if everyone else seemed to think it was a hilarious ploy, Suga still hadn’t had a chance to explain himself to the person he needed to most, and every time he tried it seemed as if he was out of town.

“He’s rarely in the office.” Kiyoko confided in him after the third time she caught him trying to peek into Kageyama’s office, not bothering to wait for Suga to stutter out an excuse. “He only comes in when we need to close an important deal or if there’s a crisis we can’t de-escalate.”

“It’s better when he’s not here! We get a lot more work down.” Hinata Shouyou, the orange haired head of sales offered empathetically, popping out of nowhere and proving to Suga’s startled heart that he’d earned his nickname ‘Ninja Shouyou’. Though he was young, he was friendly, outgoing, and difficult to say no to, all of which made him the perfect salesman. Apparently he and Kageyama had known each other since middle school, but when Kiyoko had said they were best friends, Hinata had immediately denied it. “Whenever he _is_ here, he’s always getting under foot and complaining about something minor. What was it last time?”

“His Highness was displeased we were out of his favorite milk drink. He spent twenty minutes on the phone with the supplier chewing them out.” Tuskishima Kei, one of their lead programmers, snickered as he passed by, heading towards the kitchen in question. Like most modern tech companies, to make up for the chaos and lack of a traditional working environment, they made up for it in perks like a fully stocked kitchen. 

He still wasn’t sure why Tsukishima called Kageyama ‘the King’ or ‘His Highness’, but he had a few guesses and none of them were good. Apparently, during Tsukishima’s first few weeks here when they almost came to blows, but thankfully there hadn’t been any other altercations between them. Kiyoko had advised him early on to make sure they weren’t left alone in a room together, just to keep up that statistic.

As if sensing that Suga was about to slap his hands over his face and start to deeply regret his choice of working here, Kiyoko put a comforting hand on his shoulder, shooting him a small smile.

“He’ll be back on Thursday if you want to speak to him then. It would be good to introduce yourself properly this time.” She said, and if it was anyone else, he would have thought that there was a hint of teasing or mischief in her voice. But this was immaculate professional Kiyoko Shimizu, and he was sure humor only happened after hours on her watch. 

He offered her a faint smile in return, not sure whether he should be comforted by this information or not. That wasn’t enough time to prepare an apology present, much less think about what he was going to say.

\---

Not that he would ever brag about this out loud, but Suga was normally a great gift giver. He chalked it up to the fact that he listened, most people were more than happy to talk about things that interested them if you prodded in the right manner, and he had a drive that wouldn’t let him rest until he found the perfect present. Even if it meant he had to scout through countless stores across the city, dive through the bargain bins of his area and beyond, or scour weird niche websites. It wasn’t often he was stumped on what to get someone, and though this wasn’t the first time he needed to give an apology gift, he felt the press of time slipping quickly towards Thursday it made him very nervous.

A gift melon or fruit would have been a normal and natural choice to make, but Kiyoko and Hinata had shot that idea down quickly. Apparently when those things were presented to him, Kageyama would either forget about them until they rotted and had to be thrown away or he just gave them to the next person he saw. He didn’t want to waste money on something that wouldn’t convey his apology properly.

His next thought had been getting more of the milk drink that Kageyama liked, but since the fridge was normally stocked with it, it seemed unnecessary.

He had even considered buying another tie just as a way to make light of their first meeting, something of an inside joke but it had felt too intimate to even think about. Who bought their boss a tie? Even as a joke?

“You’re overthinking it.” Daichi said after the fifth call that Suga had complained about this dilemma, calm and patient as ever. Back in high school, that tone had made Suga want to do unspeakable things to him to ruffle that composure of his. But even back then, he’d known it was just teenage hormones and the fact that Daichi had thighs that wouldn’t quit. Who wouldn’t want to sink down between them? Only someone without a pulse, that’s who. He had breathed a sigh of relief when a few months before graduation, Daichi had started dating Yui Michimiya and the pair of them were so blissfully happy even Suga had to start believing in things like love. Daichi deserved someone who was steadfast and pure hearted, two things Suga most definitely was not. Not to say that if Suga wasn’t given the chance he wouldn’t climb Daichi like a jungle cat would a tree, but the urge to do so wasn’t anywhere near as prevalent and he was more than happy that they were friends. Especially since Daichi could talk anyone down from a ledge. “Just get a melon and be done with it. It’s the thought that matters.”

“That’s easy for you to say! How did the principle react to that apology melon you gifted him after the wig incident?” There was a telling silence on the other end, and Suga couldn’t help but take it as a victory.

“All I’m saying is that he still hired you, so you shouldn’t work yourself up over it. He probably barely remembers it.” Daichi rallied, and while Suga wanted to believe him, Daichi was an optimist down to his very bones. 

“What about alcohol? Would it be weird to give my boss a bottle of booze?” Suga instead asked out loud, grinning to himself when Daichi groaned. In all of their years of friendship, Daichi had only hung up on him once and Suga was a bit disappointed that number wasn’t higher.

In the end, he’d decided to go with the tie because if Kageyama had offered him the job after that incident, he couldn’t be too upset over it. And Suga liked having inside jokes with people, especially if those people had the ability to give him a raise. Just in case it was too weird, he got the silliest tie he came across, a deep blue number that had colorful cartoon milk cartons patterned all over it. No one could look at this tie and think it was an inappropriate bribe, and if they could, they were more depraved than Suga.

While most of his apprehension had left him by the time Thursday arrived, it wasn’t all of it. He took a deep breath to steady himself as he composed himself outside of Kageyama’s office, knocking loudly.

A grunt was the only answer he got, but all the invitation he needed before opening the door and peeking in.

Kageyama looked almost exactly like he had the first time Suga had met him: hair a little long and cut only just so it didn’t fall into his eyes, button down shirt a bit rumpled, wearing tight blue jeans and sneakers. In that getup, Suga had assumed he was a high schooler, and his intense glare had been chalked up to youthful rebellion, not just that Kageyama had a grumpy old man personality. According to Hinata.

“Suga-san.” Kageyama greeted, surprisingly polite and perfunctionary even though it took him a few moments to finish typing out an email. Once the task was completed, he turned his full attention to him. Suga was sure he wasn’t the first person to call Kageyama’s gaze ‘intense’ and he doubted he’d be the last, but having Kageyama’s unmitigated stare on him made his stomach twist hotly. He’d chalk it up to nerves.

“Good morning! I never got the chance to thank you properly for giving me the chance to work here.” He paused to try to prepare himself to segue into an apology and to give the gift with the least amount of awkwardness as possible, but Kageyama spoke.

“How are you liking it here?” The question was gruff, Kageyama’s expression pinched into a scowl. If Suga didn’t know better, he would have thought that Kageyama was pissed he even had to ask a lowly employee that just for the sake of politeness, and not just that he was concerned with what terrible things Suga might say. Considering how most of the employees here talked about Kageyama as if he was a stray dog liable to bite anyone’s hand if they displeased him in any way, he had to admit he was a bit touched that Kageyama would ask.

“I like it a lot! Everyone has been very kind and helpful.” Kageyama didn’t look too convinced, leaning back in his chair with a thoughtful frown.

“Even Tsukishima?” Suga had to bite back a laugh, but he couldn’t quite hide his smile.

“Even Tsukishima. He’s been very helpful, you just have to know how to ask him.” In Suga’s experience, prickly people like Tsukishima and Kageyama responded well to soft but straight forward requests. Once those requests were fulfilled, following up with a bit of praise never hurt.

Considering Kageyama’s management style seemed to be to find whoever was supposed to fix something and demand they fix it, he wasn’t too surprised that he and Tsukishima didn’t get along very well.

“If you say so.” Kageyama said, clearly not believing Suga and uninterested in pursuing that line of conversation further. Instead, his gaze drifted to Suga’s hands, where he had been holding the box containing the tie against his side. Suga presented it quickly, even bowing slightly, knowing how ridiculous he looked but hoping his sincerity would be obvious.

“Ah, this is for you! I wanted to apologize too, for how I treated you during the interview. I never should have said what I did to you, and I hope that you don’t think less of me because of it.” 

There was a long stretch of silence. 

After a few beats, Suga tipped his head up to look at Kageyama’s face, who seemed to be more confused than anything. When Suga shook the box encouragingly, he took it, opening it slowly as if he expected something to pop out and attack him. Which, considering how Hitoka-chan had confided in him once Hinata had glitter bombed his office, was understandable. Apparently they were still finding glitter in the oddest places.

“It’s a tie.” Suga said, hating to take away the surprise but figuring it was the best course of action. He straightened up, watching Kageyama’s brows furrow as he looked at what Suga now realized was probably a far too garish and childish tie. He rubbed the back of his neck a bit nervously, wondering why now of all times he was channeling Asahi’s anxiety. “I thought since I gave you a tie then, you wouldn’t mind if I gave you another. Don’t feel obligated to wear it, I just thought it would help us laugh and move on.”

“I like it.” While there was no laughter, Kageyama didn’t seem like he was lying. Instead, he picked the tie up out of the box and actually started tying it around his neck, Suga unable to do anything but stare in shock. “I’m sorry I didn’t bring you anything. Do you want your other tie back?”

He looked genuinely contrite, but it was difficult to take him seriously with the splash of cartoon milk cartons dancing up his front. Suga quickly shook his head, laughing slightly.

“No, please keep them both. I’m glad that you like them.”

Kageyama had fixed Suga with all of his attention again, his mouth a thin line of displeasure. Suga was about to quickly bow out and go about his business when Kageyama finally spoke again.

“You did nothing you had to apologize for. I hired you because you clearly care about all the people you meet, even someone you just met. Any company would be lucky to have someone like you.” The compliment was enough to make Suga turn red, embarrassingly, for reasons he didn’t feel like identifying at the moment. Luckily, Kageyama saved him from having to say anything, because he turned back to his computer, a clear dismissal. “And if you can keep that jerk Tsukishima in line, that’s enough for me. Thanks again for the tie.”

Having lost his ability to speak apparently, Suga could only nod mutely, exiting Kageyama’s office quietly. His face was still warm and his stomach roiling. Apparently the part about ‘a little bit of praise’ being all one needed to be liked by prickly people applied to Suga too.

\---

“The potential candidate tried to harass Kiyoko into giving him her number, and while I have no doubts that she could have fended him off herself, I had to call and have security escort him off the premises-” Suga stopped only long enough to rub his temples, collapsed into one of the uncomfortable chairs in Kageyama’s office as the man diligently typed away at his laptop. He couldn’t pinpoint when exactly he had started to seek refuge in Kageyama’s office instead of Kiyoko’s or his own, but it had happened seemingly before he knew it. 

It had to be because during the past few weeks, they had started to ramp up on recruiting and while the onboarding process was a pretty smooth machine, Suga was only one man and he could only look over so many resumes before his eyes started to cross. If he went into Kageyama’s office, no one would dare bother him, and if he was particularly swamped, he’d just pop in with his work laptop and work in silence with Kageyama for a few hours until he felt better.

He wasn’t sure he could call Kageyama’s presence reassuring, because more often than not his plan of dealing with Suga’s workload was to take on more interviews himself, but his productivity was second to none. It made Suga feel like he was slacking and that complaining about his temporarily overburdened workload was silly. Kageyama came in first and was the last to leave. Though he kept insisting he didn’t, Suga was pretty sure he had a hammock or sleeping bag stashed away in his office so he could sleep here instead of going home.

The pause in Kageyama’s clacking was enough to make Suga look up, as if remembering where he was and who he was talking to. Kageyama always looked angry by default, but Suga had come to learn that he wasn’t aware of how intimidating he looked and normally was just thinking about lunch or projects he was working on. 

Now, however, he did actually look angry.

“Did he hurt anyone?” And then, as if this was the most detestable thought he’d had, even worse than the time Tsukishima had suggested Kageyama and Hinata kiss and make up after their latest fight, “Did he hurt _you_?”

“No, no one was hurt. Especially not me, I’m completely fine, don’t worry.” Suga said quickly, holding up his hands as if to fend off even the thought, touched at Kageyama’s concern despite himself. While Kageyama could be a bit rough around the edges, blunt, and short tempered, he was also open to constructive criticism and was kinder than anyone seemed to believe him to be. It was really a shame, Suga couldn’t help but think. If more people understood Kageyama like he did, maybe he wouldn’t be so alone all the time and eager for Suga’s company. Not that the last point was a bad thing! There were worse things in life than to have a boss who liked you! But it was definitely difficult to not read into it as something other than what it was. 

Not that Suga had asked, but Hinata had complained more than once that Kageyama had little interest in dating, even just in the wing man sense of things. 

‘He probably would go to a mixer if you told him to, Suga-san.’ Hinata had griped through pouted lips, and Suga had laughed off the idea.

But it was difficult to think of anything else but that now, with Kageyama’s expression smoothing out into something small and secretive as a smile shared between the two of them. Kageyama’s full blown grins could be scary, but sometimes when his expression softened, he was so gorgeous Suga’s breath caught in his throat.

“Good.” He said, and saved Suga the hassle of trying to figure out a way of fleeing before he said something stupid like ‘let’s go on a group date’ or ‘maybe we should get a drink after this’ by turning back to his laptop and picking back up where he left off.

Suga didn’t know whether he felt disappointed or relieved. 

\---

Now that he was back in town and because he was friends with Daichi, who was unbearably responsible and lived by routines, they all met for drinks every Saturday barring any strange and unusual circumstances. They had a favorite tiny bar with inexpensive and delicious gyoza that only became tastier the more Suga drank. Which only took about three drinks if he was honest, two if he hadn’t had a particularly big lunch. Even if the place tended to become so crowded Suga couldn’t help but rub elbows with the person in the seat next to him, the staff knew their orders by heart and their drinks were served without them having to order.

However, Nishinoya, Tanaka, and Michimiya were creatures who thrived on adventure, trying new things, and ‘breaking them out of their old man habits’. If they had their way, which more and more frequently they did, they probably would go somewhere new every day with only five minutes notice on where the venue was and with no time for Daichi to even read the first page of reviews. 

This had led to so many great memorable nights such as the time that they had Asahi try fugu and then immediately had to take him to the hospital after he’d fainted, the time that Tanaka had misunderstood what kind of ‘specialty’ bar his friend recommended to him, and the few ill-fated times they’d tried to do a bar crawl without Kiyoko’s supervision. 

So to say that Suga loved both of their traditions, the tiny little bar that knew them by sight or the specific chaos that came with putting Nishinoya and Tanaka in the same room together, was an understatement. 

When Asahi had told him warily as Suga had walked through the door on Friday night, that Michimiya had heard about an upscale bar she wanted to try, well, Suga made sure to take a quick shower, splash on just a hint of cologne, and update his emergency contacts just in case. 

Ever since Suga had broken up with his partner, Michimiya had made it her mission to find him someone else, which at times was hilarious or annoying in turns. As far as Suga was concerned, he wasn’t really the relationship type, and he was perfectly fine with dating casually. Asahi would say it was because Suga seemed all sweet and easy going until he lost his temper, and most people couldn’t handle the sudden switch.

Either way, it meant that most likely Michimiya was going to set him up with a cute bartender or waiter she knew at this restaurant, and Suga would be a poor friend if he didn’t humor her. None of them had panned out past a few awkward dates, and Suga didn’t have the heart to tell her it was because she didn’t seem to know his type at all. The server that she had invited along was very shy, his attempts at flirting were so painfully high school that it made Suga feel awkward, but the worst part was definitely that he only knew one drinking game. Just one! How was Suga going to get to know this guy over just one drinking game? With the near nonexistent small talk they were having? 

He was in the middle of his second drink and trying to figure out how to flag down Nishinoya to run some interference when he heard a familiar voice calling to him.

“Suga-san?” Blearily, Suga turned around to come face to face with a few smiling cartoon milk cartons, the image enough to make him start slightly. When he followed the trail of them up, he was surprised to see Kageyama scowling down at him, Kiyoko looking poised next to him, one eyebrow artfully raised.

Now that he thought about it, Tanaka had mentioned Kiyoko couldn’t make it tonight because she had a business dinner. He should have known that it would have included Kageyama, but instead of managing to say or think anything useful, he could only poke at the tie on Kageyama’s ( surprisingly firm ) chest, half-amused and half-awed.

“You’re actually wearing it!” His volume was louder than normal, enough to make Michimiya’s match for him flinch slightly, but Kageyama only looked his typical level of irritated, brows furrowed severely.

“Of course I would. It was a gift.”

“He gets a lot of compliments on it.” Kiyoko added, before giving in to the clamoring of the others to join them, sliding in next to Tanaka. When Suga arched his eyebrows at Kageyama for confirmation, his normally brusque and unflappable boss actually turned a bit red and averted his gaze. Cute.

It seemed like Kageyama was trying to figure out a graceful way to exit, which was the last thing Suga wanted considering he hadn’t had ample time to tease him about wearing the tie he’d gifted him everywhere. He patted the stool on his other side, beaming. “Take a seat Kageyama! Join us for a drink or two! Do you know any drinking games?”

Considering Hinata complained at every opportunity how little Kageyama got out, he was pleased when not only did Kageyama have a wide knowledge of drinking games, but he actually had one he’d created himself.

“Don’t play it.” Kiyoko warned him from down the bar, able to smell trouble and bad decisions brewing a mile away. “We only play that drinking game when we need to get the other party inebriated quickly or to cut a night short.” It was hard to take her seriously when her face was already flushed from the one drink that Tanaka had handed to her, and sometime between her sitting down and Suga looking away, she had donned Tanaka’s hilariously oversized sweatshirt that had dancing hearts printed all over it.

“Even more reason to play it! Tell me the rules!” Suga demanded, and Kageyama drew himself up straighter.

“It’s called ‘Setter’. We space out six shot glasses out as far as we can and you need to call what shot glass you’re going to toss a yen coin into. If you miss, you have to drink a shot, but if you make it, your opponent has to drink two shots.”

Just hearing the rules was enough to make the server that Michimiya had invited bow out, but Suga had played some volleyball in high school and was pretty confident he could get Kageyama to drink at least a few shots. But after the first round, it became apparent that whatever volleyball Suga had played wasn’t even in the same league as Kageyama, who made all his shots with a methodical precision that bordered on robotic.

Rudely, Kiyoko ignored all of Suga’s complaints and cries for her to interfere with the game and grant him mercy. The rest of the party tried to rally but all were met with similar fates, Nishinoya suffering the worst for it because he refused to admit to defeat until Asahi had to prop him up and help him take his shots. 

Even though Suga was on the losing end, he couldn’t help but admire Kageyama’s swift and sure skill, envious that he was both so young and talented and handsome. It didn’t seem fair at all. He should have left some for the rest of them, or taken it easy on them! 

He was sure he told this to Kageyama, repeatedly, with increasing levels of volume, until finally Daichi rounded on him and made him drink water for what felt like three hours.

“This is fun!” Suga decided halfway through what must have been his thirtieth cup of water but Daichi reassured him was really only his third. “We should do this again!”

It was the last clear memory he had of the night.

\---

“What happened yesterday?” Hinata demanded when Suga turned up the next morning, feeling so hungover that death would have been preferable to opening his eyes. 

He had to keep his sunglasses on in order to bear looking at his computer screen, and every hour Kiyoko had swept by to give him another waterbottle and some hangover remedy in a pouch that tasted like eating vomit rolled lovingly in mud. He would have quietly emptied the whole thing into his trash can if Kiyoko didn’t stand in the doorway of his office with her arms crossed, mouth a thin line of displeasure until he had finished the every last disgusting drop. He had liked her better when she had been dressed in Tanaka’s ridiculous sweater and had laughed at all the silly jokes Nishinoya and Tanaka had both fought over telling her. Even when they had gotten to the point where they competed in telling the punchline first, thus rendering the jokes incoherent. But Suga knew better than to tell her this or disobey, so he continued to drink the sludge from the bowels of the swamp with minimal complaint.

The fact that his brain was being protected by that sludge, however, meant that he didn’t immediately spontaneously combust with misery at the loudness of Hinata’s voice. Small miracles.

“What?” He asked intelligently, his tongue rasping against the roof of his mouth. “What are you talking about?” It felt a bit like the first time he tried to hide the fact he’d gone out drinking from his parents, with the same amount of success.

Hinata shot him an unimpressed but pitying look, thankfully lowering his voice as he leaned forward.

“Kageyama just sent an email out saying we were going to start having monthly company outings. That he was going to pay for! What did you do to him?” 

“Nothing.” It sounded guilty even to Suga’s ears, so he clarified. “I just said it was fun and we should go out drinking together more often. I didn’t think he would take it seriously.”

Hinata took this information, processed it with his head canted slightly to the side, before he came to some conclusion that had him nodding as if this somehow made sense.

“Well, he did. I told you he listens to you! From now on, if I want something from him, I’m coming to you first.” Seemingly proud of this declaration, Hinata started out towards the door, pausing only to glance back at Suga with a devilish grin that he was sure he’d seen on Kageyama’s face the other night. “The company outing is this Friday! See you there Suga-san!”

Suga didn’t throw anything after him, but it was a very near thing. Instead, he just buried his face into his arms and groaned dejectedly at the thought of drinking so soon.

\---

Somehow, Hinata’s solution to have Suga field all of his requests to Kageyama in the hopes of getting more of what he asked for seemed to catch on like wildfire with the rest of the company. Even Tsukishima, who rarely passed up the chance to needle and irritate Kageyama, would submit his requests for the ‘King’ to Suga if they were actually important. 

Considering how much more smoothly day to day operations ran, the sharp decrease in fights he had to mediate, and how useful this made him feel, Suga couldn’t complain. The only real downside was that it meant he spent much more time in Kageyama’s presence, which wasn’t really a bad thing except… well.

Kageyama was unfairly attractive, competent in his field, and was malleable to whatever Suga suggested. He couldn’t lie and say that he hadn’t started obsessively researching the legalities of being attracted to your boss. Technically, he should be fine since Kiyoko through some weird amount of organizational hierarchy finagling was the person he reported directly to. Suga had helped draft most of the paperwork concerning interoffice romances, and he found all the stipulations fine. He also would have no problems disclosing to Kiyoko if anything did happen.

But even with all of this preparation, Suga knew himself. He rarely made the first move in romantic relationships and it would take far more courage than he had to try to hit on his boss of all people. Still. It didn’t hurt to know these things in case Hinata and Kageyama’s friendship somehow turned into something more or Tsukishima admitted that most of his animosity towards Kageyama was the middle school equivalent of teasing your crush for attention. Because those scenarios were far more likely to happen than anything involving Suga and Kageyama.

\---

“Can we talk?” Suga was on his second drink and already feeling light and floaty when Kageyama’s voice broke through the pleasant fog of booze. He was sure that anytime someone asked that, nothing good would ever come from the conversation, much less during a company work dinner from his boss.

Suga took a quick inventory of the room to see if anyone would be able to come to his aid just in case this was the day he got fired for lusting after his boss or being incompetent, but it seemed like everyone was otherwise engaged. Kiyoko and Yachi were having a quiet discussion in the corner, Hinata and most of the sales department were having a noisy drinking game which Hinata seemed to be losing, Tsukishima and Yamaguichi were watching the proceedings with undisguised judgement, and everyone else was too afraid of Kageyama to do anything if he made Suga cry. 

Even so, Suga found himself nodding a bit dumbly as he got up gingerly, following Kageyama outside to a small private patio. It wasn’t until the chilly night air all but slapped him in the face that he realized how stuffy it had been in the dining room, and how much nicer it was out here. He sucked in a few steadying breaths, turning to smile his best ‘I’m innocent and have never done anything wrong’ smile at Kageyama in the hopes to mitigate whatever ‘talk’ they were going to have.

“What did you want to talk about- Kageyama? Are you okay?”

If Suga felt nervous, Kageyama looked like he might be on the verge of throwing up, his face going through a few concerning shades. 

“I-”

He stopped and started a few more times, violently tugging at his tie as if it had offended him. Suga realized belatedly that it was the tie that he had given Kageyama, one that he seemed to wear as often as possible. It was cute, and it made Suga want to reach out to smooth it out and hold Kageyama’s hands so they stilled, but he doubted that was appropriate. Nor could he blame it on alcohol just yet.

“Am I fired?” Suga joked, just to try and jumpstart whatever conversation Kageyama wanted to have, and it seemed to work, Kageyama wearing his trademark scowl. 

“Of course not! Why would I fire you? You’re a model employee and everything has been running a lot smoother since we’ve hired you.” This was news to Suga, but he wasn’t going to turn down a compliment, especially not from the person who signed his paychecks and signed off on his raises.

He slapped Kageyama’s shoulder lightly, beaming. As always, Kageyama allowed it, his expression even smoothing out slightly. 

“Can I get that in writing? My performance review is soon!” 

“S-Sure.” 

They stood in companionable silence for a few heartbeats before Kageyama seemed to come to a decision, turning to face Suga fully. As always, his gaze was so intense it made Suga want to blush or to do something reckless so that expression melted into something softer. Those sort of thoughts were dangerous, but with alcohol having eaten away his mental filter, he would allow it so long as his verbal filter was still intact. 

“Suga-san, it is inappropriate to ask you this at a work function, but I wanted to know if you would like to go out with me sometime. Not for work.” The last part was added quickly, which was good, because Suga was just about to ask for clarification. It was also bad because it made Kageyama blush, his gaze suddenly dropping. _Oh no_ , Suga couldn’t help but think distantly, _he’s so cute_. “Your answer won’t affect your performance review or your job and I have already let Kiyoko-san know I was going to ask you so she can make arrangements if this makes you uncomfortable, but I like you a lot Suga-san. As both a coworker and a person.”

Kageyama paused, swallowing so loudly that Suga’s own throat hurt. 

“I would like to get to know you better, if that’s okay.” For Kageyama, who rarely sounded anything but supremely confident in himself, the smallness of his voice at the end unlocked every warm and affectionate feeling that Suga had tried to unsuccessfully stuff in the tiniest corner of his heart.

He reached out to smooth Kageyama’s crumpled tie just to give his hands something to do, tipping his face back so he could look up at Kageyama’s face.

“You told Kiyoko first?” He asked, mock outraged, Kageyama’s eyes widening slightly. 

“I wanted to go through the proper channels first-” Kageyama started to stutter out, but Suga cut him off by using Kageyama’s tie to drag him down to kiss him soft and chaste. The drinks in his system made him bold, made all the worries he normally would have had at this moment seem inconsequential, especially in the light of Kageyama’s small hopeful smile. 

“If you were worried about doing things properly, shouldn’t you have come to me first?” Suga teased, liking how Kageyama flushed, flustered and shy. He rarely saw him like this, and for him to be this vulnerable for Suga… Well, he could get used to it.

“Then let me ask properly.” Kageyama said earnestly, which was adorable, but Suga suddenly felt impatient. Later, he could tease Kageyama about being so clumsy with his confession or so professional about the whole matter, but right now he wanted to be somewhere they could be alone. Where they could get to know each other better, outside of any tethers to work.

“Forget it, let’s get out of here. There’s a bar I like that’s not far from here.” 

“Okay.” Even though Kageyama’s agreement was short, it made Suga think back to their first meeting. When Suga had taken his own tie off and quickly tied it around Kageyama’s neck, thinking nothing of it.

‘Be sure to wear a tie to your next interviews. You can have this one if you don’t have any yourself.’ Suga had said foolishly, and Kageyama had looked at him then like he looked at Suga now. With warmth and wonder, as if he couldn’t do anything but trust wholeheartedly in Suga’s words.


End file.
